Sunday, January 11, 2015

A Historic Look at Sporting KC's Draft Position

The MLS Superdraft is less than a week away, and Sporting KC will be quite busy on Thursday. Sporting has six picks in the four round draft, including three in the first round, and four in the first 30 picks. Unfortunately from reading some reports from people that pay more attention to college soccer than I do, this doesn't appear to be the deepest draft, and appears to be weaker than most drafts in the recent past. Many of the top Generation Adidas talent has returned to school, and other talent for college teams have been claimed by team's because of homegrown player claims.

No real super stars in this selection, but some solid picks that have had solid MLS careers. Shavar Thomas has played over 100 MLS games (he was a solid contributor during his first tenure with the Kansas City Wizards. Calen Carr, Andrew Boyens, Pat Phelan, and Kevin Alston have had decent professional careers. Then there's CJ Sapong who won rookie of the year in 2011. And last year's pick, Nick Hagglund was a consistent contributor for Toronto FC in 2014. So while Sporting KC may not get a great player here, they should be able to find someone who can contribute to the team.

Only two picks later, Sporting is back on the clock. And like the 10th pick there is talent here. In fact I'd say there's better talent historically selected here than at the 10th pick. Specifically with the likes of Eddie Gaven taken here. And besides him you have solid pros like Bobby Convey (forget his time here for a second and look at hi time with DC, Reading, and the US national team. Also the likes of Jose Burciaga, Chris Wingert, and Nathan Sturgis, who have all carved out decent pro careers. Last year's pick, Marlon Hairston was a consistent contributor for the Colorado Rapids in 2014.

This location has more misses than hits, but a few players that have been contributors for a year or two, including former KC player, Korede Aiyegbusi and Baggio Husidic, who returned to MLS last year and was a consistent performer for LA as they won MLS Cup. The class of this pick is probably Eddie Robinson who had a good long career with the San Jose Earthquakes and Houston Dynamo over the years. Unfortunately then you have he likes of Tom Hardy, Ricky Lewis, and Michael Tetteh. Last year's number 20 pick, Thomas McNamara looked to be a solid pick up for Chivas USA before he tore his ACL and missed the rest of the season.

Reall, this pick comes down to just three players, Joe Franchino and Kerry Zavagnin both had solid MLS careers, and both made appearances for the national team. The third is a more recent pick, Steve Beitashour, who has turned out to be a good MLS player and went to the World Cup with Iran. The rest of the 30th pick has really not done much at the MLS level. So expecting much out of this is a stretch.

This pick actually has a few players that have been able to hang around MLS. The biggest of these names is probably Alan Gordon, who continues to play in MLS and has scored over 40 goals in MLS play over the course of his career. Rauwshan McKenzie and Joseph Nane have hung around MLS for a few years as well. And Adam Jahn had a successful rookie year with San Jose before being loaned to Sacramento in 2014. Overall though I wouldn't expect a lot from this pick long term.

Very little available from Sporting KC's last pick. Lawson Vaughn had a successful career, but pretty much the rest of the names are forgettable. Pablo Punyed was back with Sporting in preseason this past year, and had a very successful campaign in Iceland, winning the title and winning a few rounds in the Europa League before falling to Inter Milan.

So historically, Sporting KC won't get a game changer in the draft, but they should be able to get some talent that can contribute to the team in year won, depending on which of their six draft picks they keep. The possibility of bringing the Besler brothers together is certainly something fun to think about.